Pioneer of home video game console Ralph Henry Baer died

Rupali Pruthi

The pioneer of home video game console Ralph Henry Baer died on 6 December 2014 in Manchester following a brief illness. He was 92.

He was famously known as the Father of Video Games due to his contributions to video game industry.

Ralph Henry Baer • Born to a Jewish family in south-western Germany in 1922, Baer and his family fled the country in 1938 to escape the Holocaust.• In the late 1960s, Baer developed a system known as the Brown Box while working for Sanders Associates, a New Hampshire-based defence contractor. Later, Brown Box was named as Magnavox Odyssey.• A version of Baer's Brown Box is now at the American History Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. • In 1967, he designed the game Chase, the first game played in a television set.• Baer is credited for creating the first light gun for video game console. He is the co-creator of the light-up memory games Simon and Super Simon.• Baer received the National Medal of Technology from President George W Bush in 2006 and in 2008, he received the Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award.• In 2010, Ralph Henry Baer was inducted into the United States National Inventors Hall of Fame.• In 2005, he donated all original videogame units and documents to the Smithsonian Institution.

This website uses cookie or similar technologies, to enhance your browsing experience and provide personalised recommendations. By continuing to use our website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.
OK